Far more people will survive cancer in the coming years, the Government has pledged, as it published a new 10-year plan to tackle the disease.
The national cancer plan, published in full on Wednesday, will say 75% of patients diagnosed from 2035 will be cancer-free or living well after five years, up from 60% at the moment.
According to the Department of Health, this represents the fastest rate of improvement in cancer outcomes this century and will translate to 320,000 more lives saved over the lifetime of the plan.
The document will also pledge that the NHS will meet all its cancer waiting time targets by 2029.
Other announcements include a big expansion in robot-assisted surgery and faster diagnostic tests to cut down delays in cancer diagnosis and treatment.
At present, there is a national target for 85% of patients to wait no longer than 62 days from an urgent referral for suspected cancer to their first definitive treatment.
Just 70.2% of people in November were treated in this timeframe, but the Government has set an interim target of March 2026 for this figure to reach 75%. This target will remain in place.
Another existing target is diagnosing or ruling out cancer within 28 days of referral for 75% of patients.
This is being met but the interim target says the figure must be at 80% by March.
Another target is for 96% of cancer patients to commence treatment within 31 days of a decision to treat them. The current figure is 91.7%.
All these targets will stay as hospitals work towards improvement.
The new 10-year plan is not expected to include details on prostate cancer screening after the UK screening committee rejected population-wide testing last year.
Health Secretary Wes Streeting is still gathering and analysing evidence on the issue.
Speaking ahead of the plan being published, Mr Streeting said: “Cancer survival shouldn’t come down to who won the lottery of life.
“But cancer is more likely to be a death sentence in Britain than other countries around the world.
“As a cancer survivor who owes my life to the NHS, I owe it to future patients to make sure they receive the same outstanding care I did.
“Thanks to the revolution in medical science and technology, we have the opportunity to transform the life chances of cancer patients.
“Our cancer plan will invest in and modernise the NHS, so that opportunity can be seized and our ambitions realised.
“This plan will slash waits, invest in cutting-edge technology, and give every patient the best possible chance of beating cancer.”
The plan will also contain details on a £2.3 billion investment to deliver 9.5 million additional tests by 2029, investing in more scanners, digital technology and automated testing.
Where possible, Community Diagnostic Centres will also operate 12 hours a day, seven days a week, and the number of robot-assisted procedures will increase from 70,000 to half a million by 2035.
This is aimed at cutting complications and freeing up more hospital beds.
More patients with rarer cancers can also expect to have their care reviewed and treated at specialist cancer centres, which bring together surgeons, oncologists, specialist nurses and radiologists.
As previously announced, every patient deemed to benefit will be offered a genomic test that analyses the DNA of their cancer with the aim of finding the right treatment.
Professor Peter Johnson, NHS national clinical director for cancer, said: “Almost everyone will know someone who has been affected by cancer – a friend, a partner, a parent or a child – and for many people it will be part of their own story too.
“This plan sets a clear roadmap for the NHS to diagnose more cancers earlier, ensure more patients are treated on time and improve survival, so that hundreds of thousands more people live longer, healthier lives with or after cancer over the next decade.”
Gemma Peters, chief executive at Macmillan Cancer Support, said: “It’s encouraging to see such bold survival ambitions in the national cancer plan for England.
“This comes at a time when people living with cancer tell us all too often that their care hasn’t been good enough, from long waits for tests and treatment to being left without the support they need once treatment ends.
“This plan has the potential to transform care for people living with cancer, ensuring people not only live longer but live better with their diagnosis.”
Michelle Mitchell, chief executive of Cancer Research UK, said: “Across England, too many cancer patients are waiting too long to start treatment, so it’s important that the UK Government has committed to meeting cancer waiting time targets by 2029. A wide range of measures will be needed for these to be met.
“In addition to this, it’s promising to see the Government’s ambitious commitment to saving more lives from cancer.
“England lags behind comparable countries on cancer survival and it’s vital that this changes, so more people affected by cancer can live longer, better lives.”
Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey said the “unfunded plan – despite its warm promises – won’t be anything like enough to restore our broken, overwhelmed cancer services”.
Nuffield Trust deputy director of research Sarah Scobie said: “The ambition in today’s plan is very welcome and the Government has made the right choice to focus on hitting existing cancer waiting times targets, instead of adding new and unrealistic ones.
“But the NHS will still find them incredibly difficult to meet based on current performance.
“Between April and November last year, there was only a 0.1% improvement in the proportion of patients waiting under 62 days to start cancer treatment. To meet the Government’s target of 85% starting treatment within this timeframe by the March 2029, we’d need to see improvements of almost 0.4% every single month.
“That would mean the NHS improving at 30 times the rate it has managed since April. This would be an enormous feat to maintain and we are still awaiting details on how it would be funded.
“The UK lags behind other countries in cancer outcomes and faces longstanding gaps in investment and staff, with key equipment like diagnostic scanners in short supply compared to countries like Germany, Sweden and Italy.
“Taking advantage of new developments in digital technology could help, for example by using AI to speed up diagnosis for patients, but making the UK ‘world-leading’ on cancer will take time and the commitment of scarce resources in a health service already under pressure.”
